Biochemistry for dummies?

So, I recently enrolled at Siebel and recieved my course schedule today. It looks like it involves a little bit of biochemistry.

I've been out of college for 6 years now, and can't remember biochem for the life of me. It's not really in-depth, but I need to know a little. I'd like to brush up on it before classes get started.

Can anyone point me towards some good books related to brewing and biochem? I'm looking for something that's laid out nice enough so that someone who knows very little about it could understand.

Dude, your effed in the A!

Just kidding, congrats on the Siebel enrollment! Good luck please return info to HBT!

I have nothing to offer in the way of Biochem, I am finishing my second semester of undergrad.

However I would love to go to Siebel! I have school envy...bastich!

Cheers!

It should be fun. I'll keep everyone posted as to how things are going. It's a pretty crazy schedule. A lot of info has to be crammed into not a lot of time. At this point, I'm only taking the Concise Course in Brewing Technology. After talking to the admissions office, we determined this would be the best option for me. The class teaches you practically everything you need to know about the industry, but not as in depth as the Master Brewers program. Unfortunately (from what I understood), you can't even enroll in the Master Brewers program without prior industry experience.

I was told that once I complete this course, I'll be able to move on to the more in depth courses. Classes are booked until 2013 though...so it'll be awhile. At least the concise course will get me the basic knowledge I need to get my foot in the door at a brewery.

My boss is in the process of starting up his own brewpub (10bbl system and land have been bought), so hopefully that'll be where I end up.

Check out a book called "brewchem" by Jansen. It goes into detailed (but not detailed so that it's not easily understandable) organic chemistry involved in the brewing process.

Has Lewis structures for various sugar molecules, goes over organic processes involved, etc.

Here's a blog about someone doing the big Siebel program with the Germany trip. Kind of interesting though I wish it was more in depth and discussed more about the things they're learning... though he is going to school so I imagine he doesn't have the time.

It'd be sweet if you did something similar... nudge nudge.

You'll probably want to know the fundamentals about enzymes(what they are, how they work, what causes them to denature/not work) but you won't need much knowledge of enzyme kinetics. That will help you understand how certain enzymes act on their respective substrates to give certain products the brewer desires.

Also, you'll want to brush up on what actually happens to the sugars once the yeast ingest them. Brush up on glycolysis and alcoholic fermentation. Don't worry about the Citric Acid Cycle or Oxidative Phosphorilation. Also, brush up on organic chemistry in general. Be able to recognize the different functional groups and maybe even know their respective reactivity and what types of reactions they are involved in. Make sure you know what is an acid, base, nucleophile, electrophile. Reaquaint yourself with Lewis structures and maybe go over some organic reactions to become familiar with the way mechanisms will be presented.

I know there are some websites that offer lessons on o-chem because I have used them. There are probably similar sites for biochem concepts. Do a google search of something like "online organic chemistry tutorials."

Other than that you could probably pick up some used o-chem and biochem textbooks on amazon for pretty cheap. Don't worry if they are old editions, the all cover the same material. If you do that just concentrate on the pertinent information. For example, in an o-chem text you wouldn't need to go over any of the spectroscopy because you won't use that in biochem.

I graduated the past year with a double major in biology and chemistry. When I took biochemistry, I did not need to recall much aside from general chemistry and biology. Everything else you will learn, that is why you are taking the class! However, if you really want to brush up on subjects you should take a look at what Dregaddict said, but maybe not in as much detail because you will learn it in the course.